How to Identify Behavioural Competency Gaps in Maritime Teams
Maritime operations depend on more than technical knowledge and professional qualifications. Effective communication, leadership, teamwork, decision-making, situational awareness, and adaptability are equally important for safe and efficient vessel operations. When these behavioural competencies are weak, they can affect crew performance, safety culture, and overall operational outcomes.
A Maritime Behavioural Competency Assessment provides shipping companies with a structured way to identify these gaps and understand where their teams need further development.
What Are Behavioural Competency Gaps?
Behavioural competency gaps occur when a seafarer’s current behaviours, attitudes, or interpersonal skills do not fully meet the competencies required for their role.
For example, an officer may have strong technical knowledge but struggle with delegation or communication. Similarly, a crew member may understand safety procedures but hesitate to speak up when they notice a potential risk.
Identifying these gaps allows companies to provide targeted development instead of relying only on generic training programs.
Why Behavioural Competencies Matter in Maritime Teams
Ships are complex working environments where individuals must work together under changing conditions. Crew members need to communicate clearly, make decisions under pressure, manage conflicts, and maintain situational awareness.
Strong behavioural competencies can support:
- Effective teamwork
- Better communication
- Stronger leadership
- Improved decision-making
- Greater safety awareness
- Better conflict management
- Positive safety culture
A Maritime Behavioural Competency Assessment helps organisations evaluate these capabilities systematically.
Key Behavioural Competencies to Assess
1. Leadership
Leadership is essential for masters, officers, supervisors, and anyone responsible for guiding others.
Assessment can examine how individuals delegate tasks, provide feedback, manage performance, motivate team members, and respond to challenging situations.
2. Communication
Poor communication can create misunderstandings and operational risks. Assessment should consider whether crew members communicate information clearly, listen actively, confirm important instructions, and share relevant information with others.
3. Teamwork
Maritime teams must coordinate effectively across different roles and levels of responsibility. Teamwork assessment can focus on cooperation, trust, mutual support, information sharing, and respect for different viewpoints.
4. Decision-Making
Seafarers regularly make decisions in situations involving uncertainty and time pressure. A behavioural assessment can evaluate whether individuals gather relevant information, consider risks, involve appropriate team members, and make timely decisions.
5. Situational Awareness
Situational awareness involves understanding what is happening, recognising potential risks, and anticipating what could happen next.
Weak situational awareness can contribute to poor judgement and preventable incidents.
6. Conflict Management
Differences in opinions and working styles are common in diverse maritime teams. Employees should be able to address disagreements professionally without allowing conflicts to affect teamwork or safety.
How to Identify Behavioural Competency Gaps
Conduct Structured Assessments
Use standardised assessment frameworks to evaluate employees against clearly defined behavioural competencies. Consistent criteria make it easier to compare performance and identify development areas.
Gather Multiple Sources of Feedback
One person’s opinion may not provide a complete picture. Companies can combine feedback from supervisors, peers, managers, and other relevant stakeholders.
This provides a broader understanding of an individual’s workplace behaviour.
Use Real-World Scenarios
Scenario-based assessments can reveal how seafarers respond to realistic maritime situations.
For example, an assessment might explore how an officer handles a communication breakdown, manages disagreement between crew members, or responds when a team member raises a safety concern.
Review Performance Data
Companies can also examine incident reports, near-miss records, audit findings, performance reviews, and training results.
These sources can help identify recurring behavioural patterns that may require attention.
Compare Current and Required Competencies
Once assessment data has been collected, compare the individual’s current competency level with the expected standard for their position.
This creates a clear competency gap that can be addressed through targeted development.
Using Assessment Results for Training
Assessment should not simply identify weaknesses. The results should lead to meaningful development.
For example:
Gap: Weak delegation skills
Development: Leadership and delegation training
Gap: Poor communication during critical operations
Development: Maritime communication and closed-loop communication training
Gap: Difficulty managing disagreements
Development: Conflict management and interpersonal skills training
This approach ensures that training is directly connected to identified needs.
The Role of Digital Assessment Platforms
Technology can simplify the assessment and tracking process. Digital platforms can help organisations manage competency frameworks, conduct assessments, store results, and monitor employee development.
Training teams can also use assessment data to identify common gaps across vessels, departments, or employee groups.
This enables companies to move from individual training decisions toward data-driven workforce development.
Benefits of Maritime Behavioural Competency Assessment
A structured Maritime Behavioural Competency Assessment can help shipping companies:
- Identify behavioural skill gaps
- Strengthen leadership capabilities
- Improve communication and teamwork
- Support better decision-making
- Enhance safety culture
- Personalise employee development
- Improve training effectiveness
- Support succession planning
- Monitor competency development over time
Creating a Continuous Competency Development Process
Behavioural competency assessment should not be treated as a one-time exercise. Maritime teams operate in constantly changing environments, and employees develop new responsibilities throughout their careers.
Companies should periodically reassess competencies and use the results to update individual development plans.
A continuous cycle of assess → identify gaps → develop → apply → reassess can help create a stronger and more capable maritime workforce.
Conclusion
Technical expertise is essential in maritime operations, but behavioural competencies play an equally important role in creating safe, effective, and collaborative teams.
A well-designed Maritime Behavioural Competency Assessment helps shipping companies understand how employees communicate, lead, collaborate, make decisions, and respond to challenging situations. By turning assessment findings into targeted development programs, companies can strengthen individual performance while building a stronger maritime safety culture.
For modern shipping organisations, behavioural competency assessment is not simply an HR activity—it is an important part of developing resilient, high-performing maritime teams.